Believe the Works, Part 2

Believe the Works

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Piety

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not prevail. In their failure, they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.  LORD of hosts, you test the just, you see mind and heart, let me see the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the evildoers! (Jeremiah 20:11-13

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?  If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."  John 10:34-38

Study

Jeremiah had an interior crisis. In our first reading, we hear his soliloquy doubting the purpose for which he was on earth. It ends with the rhetorical question: “Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?”  

Jesus differs from the prophets in that he has no doubt about his role.  However, the people around him doubt and challenge his assertions.  Jesus attempts to overcome the doubters that challenge him. “Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble, like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide.” Job 14:1-2

Finally, Jesus differed even from John the Baptist and the believers came to realize and understand that “John performed no sign.”  Jesus abides in the Father and the Father abides in Jesus.

Action

Jesus implores people that believe in him as a man is not important.  “Believe the works.” He is not seeking to create some celebrity cult of worshipping Jesus as a man.  He wants to bring us closer to both God and each other. 

What works have helped bring you closer to a place where the Father abides in you and you abide in the Father?

Sacraments?

Prayer?

Fasting?

Corporal Works of Mercy?

Spiritual Works of Mercy?

Social Justice?

Our Lenten Journey is now at the border to the city of Jerusalem?  Have these practices readied you for the road ahead?